page 74, 80

[NOTE: In this issue there was a long article about music and political activism. I've included here the short section that involved Natalie.]

....This past June, [Billy] Bragg toured Eastern Europe with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and 10,000 Maniacs' Natalie Merchant, stopping in Czechoslovakia around the time of the first free elections held there since World War II.

"It was amazing to see people our own age voting for the first time," says Merchant, who is twenty-six. "Imagine living in a country where, if the music you performed mentioned a taboo subject, your equipment would be seized and you'd never be allowed to perform again. It made us feel really horrible about being from countries where people are so apathetic about the democratic system." Though Merchant has been active in a variety of causes, she harbors serious doubts about the depth of pop culture's efficacy as a social force. "Nauseated is probably the wrong word," she says with a laugh, "but I've become very disillusioned about all this. I saw William F. Buckley debating Dennis Weaver on television the other night! What is going on in the world? What makes a celebrity suddenly qualified to debate the role of government? Even me: I'm about as well informed as anybody who reads the newspaper; I don't get any exclusive insights.

"I think those mega-concerts left people with mixed feelings," Merchant continues. "I applaud the effort, but I question the long-lasting power of it. Look, I got swept up by the energy of Live Aid, too. I donated money; it was inspiring. The young people of the Western world made their statement. But why did we need a rock performance to raise those funds? A lot of people who were involved didn't devote a lot of attention to the cause through their art. For instance, it was a hypocrisy for Madonna to perform at Live Aid. It seemed almost grotesque to see her singing Holiday and then to see live telecasts of starving children in the desert."

For Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs, a sense of conscience has been a fairly consistent thread through the 1980s, in both musical and activist terms. On their most recent tour, for instance, the group brought along representatives of a volunteer coalition called Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) and let them recruit members and distribute leaflets during the concerts.

"Awareness doesn't always have to be organized," Merchant says. "The lyrics that I write are advocating personal changes in many ways, not social revolution. Cherry Tree is about someone who's illiterate, and I've received letters from teachers who've used that song, or teachers who've played Gun Shy in the classroom and discussed pacifism, or people who want permission to use What's the Matter Here? in training programs for spotting abused children. So the music and lyrics are used by people for all kinds of purposes; not to change the world, but to change a part of the world."

.... "When I look at documentaries about the Sixties, like Eyes on the Prize," says Natalie Merchant, "and I hear Bob Dylan's voice on the soundtrack accompanying those images of the civil-rights movement, I link his voice to a certain time. I think his music struck people because it described those times. Hopefully, that's what we're doing too."